​One thing has led to another - and another – and another, which has caused our stay in Jacksonville to extend later into April and has kept us in nearly constant motion since our last update. (At least that’s the excuse for letting so much time go by.) As we are about to depart for Virginia, it’s a good time to reflect on what’s been accomplished in the latter part of our stay.

Sprinklers re-activated using well water for new garden plots

Springs in the Desert

With the reactivation of the church’s well, the efforts began in earnest to tap into its flow to supply the church’s many irrigation zones and also to provide water for a planned community garden that would be installed by members of the Burmese American community on the church’s land (sponsored by Jacksonville Refugee Community Services). Since the well had originally powered a large irrigation system for a soccer field, we needed to discover how much of the existing pipes could be used to supply the 2 new projects. This, of course, meant that we had to DIG.

Digging to expose old irrigation pipes

​The digging was initially broken into 2 parts. One group would expose the existing pipes in the lot where the well sits and the garden is planned. Another would dig a new trench along the church’s parking lot to install the new pipe needed to supply well water to the church’s irrigation system. ​

Each Saturday beginning in early March, a group from World Relief would dig out the pipes starting at the well and heading west paralleling the creek that separated this land from the church’s parking lot. As junctions were discovered, their viability for providing water to the garden on the northeast side of the lot was assessed. Eventually, a junction went in the right direction and kept going. Now this group split into two, with one group continuing west toward the bridge over the creek and the other headed toward the new garden. Along the way, a leaking coupling was identified and repaired. Several hundred feet west of the well, the spot for T-ing off toward the church was exposed.

Long run of pipe installed along parking lot behind fence

​On the other side of the creek, we needed to connect to the existing irrigation pipes at a point behind the steeple at the northeast corner of the church’s parking lot. Although this was a short distance as the crow flies, it required hundreds of feet of digging to get from the junction with the irrigation pipe on the other side of the creek to the point where we would tap into the existing irrigation pipe. With a LOT of help from Dave and Sandi Barkley, and Ken Connor, some Nomads that were drop-ins at Faith for a few days, we dug the long trench to allow the pipe and new valves to be installed. It went amazingly fast.

Pipe crossing bridge

​With the digging done, the plumbing work could be done in earnest. On the church’s property, the existing irrigation system had its own city water connection which fed many zones, one of which lined the parking lot beside the steeple. Dave modified this zone to connect it and thereby the rest of the irrigation zones to the well water system. He moved its control valve closer to the steeple and staged the wiring for a future control box for this now separate zone. After laying several hundred feet of 2 inch pipe into the dugout trenches, he had one more engineering challenge – crossing the bridge with the pipe. He managed to do this with a couple of sections of 4 inch pipe that provided enough room for the insulated 2-inch pipe to pass through. For good measure, he also added a couple of new hose bibs by the steeple. ​

Droz and Grandpa operating irrigation zones

Once the city water connection had been shut off, it was time to see how well the system would work. The old irrigation system was sluggish and ineffective. Not so once the well water started to flow. Sprinkler heads in even the farthest zone burst from the ground and began spraying. Over the course of several days, a couple of leaks were identified and corrected. Some of the newly-found sprinkler heads were protected with a sleeve of PVC. Satisfied that the system was basically sound, the zones were put back on a schedule to run overnight a couple nights a week.

Installing hose bibs by garden

​Back in the garden space, Dave worked with the Burmese and the director of the Jacksonville Refugee Community Services to develop a plan for providing water for the garden. Initially a series of 5 hose bibs was planned, along with a valve to separate this zone from that at the church. Dave trained one of the Burmese to do this, and they took it from there. At a celebratory lunch after the last connection had been made, Dave turned the water on to the hose bibs, which all worked without leaks. But out of curiosity, he decided to open a pre-existing irrigation valve to see what happened. All of sudden the dirt around him came alive as mud and water sprayed him from the re-activated sprinkler head that was unexpectedly close. Amazingly, several sprinklers were now spraying the field that was to become the garden. Wow!

Patterning side of boat cover

​It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again

With a pull, the zipper started to close, but along with the pull came an unpleasant discovery. The boat cover Cathy had made last year was failing in places. The fabric – a re-made RV cover – was brittle on the “roof” where it was most exposed to the Florida sun and was ripping. This would not last another year. That meant something had to be done. Sigh!​

Orion Jr "naked" with cover frame in place

Initially, the plan was just to replace the material on the top half this year and deal with the lower half “later”. However, in trying to decide what material to use, we found a great deal on a large remnant that would supply enough Surlast material to replace the entire cover. This is higher quality material which should last several years. It was daunting to think about making the cover again, but this year she at least had a good pattern in last year’s cover and the frame was still sound.

​Over the course of 3 weeks, Cathy buried herself in her “sewing” room, an empty classroom in one of the Education buildings. The cover began to take shape. Having cut the cover into 3 sections, she decided to remake the 2 sides and do another fitting after putting them together. The fitting went amazingly well. The cover fit well and the original back would provide a very good pattern for the remaining panel. However, there was a big “gotcha”. Cathy hadn’t paid attention to the location of the vents from the original RV cover. They sat along the ridge and Dave felt this was a source of water incursion on the boat. They had to be moved down.

New boat cover finished and in place

​That mistake added another week of work to the project, but eventually, the final stitch went in and the cover went on, and fit great. It’s heavier than the original, and more water resistant. Hopefully, the added vents (which are now more numerous and much lower) will provide enough ventilation to keep condensation and mildew at bay. Only time will tell.

Inside Boat cover

New "temporary" hatch boards

More Boat Stuff

Although Orion Jr sits under cover, she still needs some maintenance. The exterior wood needed varnishing and the temporary hatch boards that we use to protect the teak boards were deteriorating. The lower one was bad enough that it had to be remade. Thanks to the well-appointed wood shop at the church, this was much easier than the last time we made them. We also washed her decks and flushed the cockpit drains to ensure they were clear.

RV Orion at Camping World

​RV Stuff

We had been having a problem with a water leak under the RV that we had traced to the fresh water system. Unfortunately, it leaked whether we were using the water tanks or the city water. Which meant we had to keep the water turned off and limit our use as much as possible. This was becoming a nuisance. Also, there was a leak if the shower grey water holding tank got full. All of these leaks were occurring where we couldn’t see them, under the floor, but above the sealed underbelly of the RV. We took the trailer in for a service appointment at Camping World. It took a couple of days, and the water tank had to be dropped to get at the problem, but it appears to have been fixed. (Two hoses pinched by the floor boards and a loose fitting.)

They also checked out our wiring fix and said it was fine. All of the problems were covered by our warranty, so we felt pretty good about the service. After a few nights in the church’s guesthouse, we were back in the RV and could use water freely again. That’s a good thing.

Diane at Jeff and Madison's wedding reception

Downtime?

Yes, we had time to take a break every now and then, starting with our nephew’s wedding in Orlando on March 11th. Afterward, we were joined by Dave’s mom and sister, Diane, who wanted to see Faith and what we were up to here. They were able to join us for a lunch at Clara’s at the Cathedral and Diane and Dave were given a tour of the Clara White Mission and its new facility that reclaimed a downtown building to provide housing for homeless vets.

Droz and Lazarus

On Palm Sunday, we took a trip to Savannah to meet our grandson, who came for a visit on his Spring Break. He managed to help us with a number of projects but also managed to discover the secret behind Grandpa’s trips to Home Depot in the afternoon. (Hint: Steak n Shake nearby has half price shakes between 2 and 4). And there was always the fun of driving Lazarus around the property. On Friday, he joined his girlfriend’s family for a drive north back home. It was a great week.

Seder Plate

​This was our second Easter at Faith. We enjoyed a Passover Seder meal on Wednesday with three churches participating. And on Easter Sunday, we had a special guest at the sunrise service. Hemingway sat on Pastor Barry's lectern to make sure she took in his message.